Page 95 of Something in Between

“Hey.”

“Listen, I know you’re mad at me.”

“Am I?” I don’t think I’m so much mad as just exhausted.

“Probably. I haven’t been a good friend lately,” she says. And that’s when I see him coming down the bathroom stairs. Kayla sees my face and instantly goes silent. It’s Royce, on the stairwell. I’d recognize his dark hair anywhere. Oh God. I can’t breathe. How can this be happening? This is a nightmare.

Wait! What?

It’s not Royce.

It’s his brother, Mason.Mason?What’s he doing here?

Then I put it all together. She’swithMason. I have no idea when or how, but somehow Mason and Kayla have hooked up. Somehow she’s fallen for my boyfriend’s brother and dumped Dylan in the meantime. I don’t know whether to be angry or confused.

Was this the “family issue” Royce was talking about? But what did I care if his brother was dating my best friend? Why couldn’t he tell me? Why did it have to be so hush-hush?

Mason walks up, slick and smarmy. How can such a nice guy like Royce have such a slimy brother? How can they have come from the same parents?

“Isn’t this a surprise?” Mason asks, putting his arm around Kayla. I have to try really hard to keep myself from audibly groaning. “What’s up, National Scholar? Did you see anything good?”

What does Kayla see in him? I don’t get it. Dylan’s a prince compared to Mason.

“Haven’t seen you around lately,” he continues, looking me up and down. “You and Royce still an item? Or did you finally kick my stupid little brother to the curb?”

“He’s not stupid!” What an awful thing to say about Royce being dyslexic, as if Royce wasn’t so sensitive about it already.

“Only because he has more tutors than God,” Mason laughs. “Poor Royce, trying to keep up with his little honor student. I hope you don’t use very big words.” Mason grins. His teeth are perfectly straight andtoowhite. It’s like he left his teeth whitener on for too long. “That’s okay. I told him a girl like you would get bored of a guy like him soon enough.”

Something he says stirs a memory in me.

That night in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in D.C., when I first met Mason, he’d been slimy, sure, but he’d been charming too. He was flirting with me, I realize now. Trying to put his little brother down in front of me. I’d thought he was insulting me, but it wasn’t me he was belittling. What had he said then?

My little brother doesn’t usually go after the smart girls. Hey, if you get bored of him, give me a call, will you?

Mason hadn’t been joking when he said that. He was trying to horn in, trying to pick me up, right in front of his brother, just to show Royce he could.

I thought Mason didn’t like me because I wasn’t good enough for Royce, but there’s something else going on here. Something gross.

I feel sick to my stomach, and I want to find Royce as soon as possible and make everything right between us again.

Call me, Mason mouths.You know where I live. Now he’s flirting with me in front of Kayla. How he can be related to someone as decent as Royce, I will never understand.

“Come on, Mason. Let’s go,” Kayla says. She glances back as they’re walking away, but I glare at her. I can’t believe she’s with that loser.

As soon as they’re out the door, Dad texts that he’s waiting in the parking lot.

I walk to the car and get inside.

Dad turns on the ignition. “How was the movie?”

“It was fine,” I say. I’m shaking. I have to see Royce. I can’t bear to be away from him for another moment. I text him.

jasmindls: I saw Mason and Kayla. Can you meet me? We need to talk. Please?

It feels like it takes forever for him to text back, but it’s really only a few minutes.

royceb: Hey. Where?

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